always a ranger

🦋 OOC Information

Name: Zoki
Contact: kharamagica @ discord, kharamagic, or PM here!
Age: 21+
Other Characters: N/A
Invitation: here!
Permissions: here!

🦋 IC Information

Character Name: Billy Cranston
Age: approx. 46
Canon: Power Rangers
Canon Point: post Cosmic Fury finale
Character History: Wiki
Canon Abilities: Billy is a Power Ranger! As long as his power morpher (a metal belt buckle-shaped device) is on his person, he can summon a power blaster (small laser gun) from hammerspace at any time. When the morpher is fully activated by a catchphrase, he dons a blue and white spandex-like suit with a fully face-covering helmet.

The suit is ionized (yay sci-fi technobabble) to blunt the impact of attacks and somewhat cushion him from falls. In this form, the previously mentioned power blaster is holstered on his belt, and he can also summon a Power Lance (two-headed lance, about the size of a bo staff) from hammerspace. The lance can be wielded as a single long weapon or split in two for dual wielding.

He has somewhat enhanced reflexes and stamina in this form, but he's more like an enhanced peak martial artist than especially super-humanly strong. It's not like he can throw cars or fly or anything. He had martial arts and gymnastics training as a teen and still uses those disciplines in combat, but as he's gotten older he's focused more on marksmanship and ranged attacks when fighting.

As far as non-Ranger related abilities, he's an inventor and engineer by trade. He's worked on and upgraded Zords, enhanced super-tanks, used that tech to retrofit hover on a car, built communications devices, and is now the CEO of a tech company. He's also built smaller devices to counter specific enemies and done some minor chemistry work, but his main focuses are communications tech and weapons.

Inventory:
-Power Morpher (metal belt buckle like device, its core is the bronze-colored power coin with a triceratops marking that's mounted in the middle. Without it, he has no access to his powers.)
-Communicator (very old school wrist communicator that works like a walkie talkie, but has modern cell phone-like range. Audio only, no screens. Will only be able to connect to Andros's communicator, since they're both of his design. It has a teleportation function in canon, but that won't work here.)

🦋 Personality

Option 1: Answer the following questions. Elaborate on the answer, especially your characters thoughts and feelings surrounding the answer. For Canon Characters, you can choose four questions. For Original Characters, you will need to choose six questions. Keep the word count to 150-400 per question.

1. Has your character always believed in magic? Do they have something influencing their perspective on the supernatural/metaphysical/spiritual from their past? How do they feel about magic?


Billy definitely didn't believe in magic as a child. He was a budding engineer as soon as he was old enough to pick up a wrench, and in his mind there was no room for mysticism and physics-breaking in the sciences. Then at 15 years old he was teleported to an alien command base and told to go fight a witch from space. It surprised him at first, and he tried to understand her monster-growing and object-transforming powers through principles of physics, but he eventually came to accept that their foes had magic. Their mentor Zordon was a former wizard as well, though he mainly bestowed them with technology. (Whether the Power Morphers are magic or tech is a question Billy struggled with too, and he settled on tech for the sake of his own comfort).

In his 30 years as a Ranger, Billy's seen a lot of magic shatter and rewrite the laws of reality. Time reversed and sped up, matter created from nowhere again and again, strange instant transformations. He's never been able to wield magic, so he counters it with the best understanding of technology he can. He'll push the laws of physics to their limit, and tap into the power of the Morphin Grid when he can, but sometimes he's just going to be hit with a spell.

Over the years, Billy's mellowed out a little, but his first compulsion is still to try to Understand Everything, magic included. He understands that won't always be possible now, but he can still try! He greets magical allies with curiosity about the ins and outs of their powers nowadays, and does his best to prep his tech for enemies.


2. If your character could ask for one wish, and it's going to be magically granted without any consequence, what will it be and why?


Billy's one wish is simple: he'd undo his greatest failure from a year ago. He tried to restore his former mentor Zordon to life after his mentor's sacrifice many years ago, but in doing so he accidentally resurrected the evil space witch Rita Repulsa. She then attempted to murder Billy to get revenge on the Ranger team who'd bested her, but his teammmate and childhood best friend Trini sacrificed herself to save him.

Billy and Trini were the best of friends for most of their lives. They understood each other more deeply than most people do, and she'd supported him and helped him grow strong when he was bullied and weak. And Billy wishes more than anything that his idiocy hadn't cost her her life---he'd even trade places with Trini in death if that was the only way to bring her back.

Trini left a daughter behind, and Billy will bear the weight of his actions forever. When Minh lashed out at him with blame and disdain, he didn't try to defend himself because there truly was no defense for letting her mom die because he wanted to be the big hero and reverse a sacrifice. Still, Billy deeply cares for his 'niece' and he'd do anything to make her smile again.


3. What is your character's most outstanding personality trait, and why?


Billy is driven more than anything by curiosity. He seeks to understand how the world works, and to use that knowledge to make it better. When he and his friends were first chosen to be Rangers, his first reaction was to poke around the base and take everything in. When they met aliens who weren't immediately hostile, like the bumbling Bookala, he welcomed them gladly while his friends were more cautious. His curiosity sometimes overwhelms his caution, and that can lead to disaster, such as with Rita and Trini. So he's learned a few hard lessons.

He spent most of his young adulthood away from Earth, first immersing himself in his girlfriend's culture on the distant planet Aquitar, then learning more about other Ranger teams.Even after returning to Earth and establishing a company and home base, Billy still goes on exploratory missions to uncover the secrets of the universe and find new ways to support the younger Rangers. He stumbled into adopting the Dino Fury rangers under his mentorship when he was searching for ancient Zords on a distant planet, and he did his best to get to know the group and unlock the potential of their powers.

If there was a new possibility out there, he was always determined to find it.


4. Your character gets to return home, but when they do they learn that they've been gone for hundreds of years. How do they react?


Billy's reaction would be in three stages: first, disbelief. Numb shock at his rotten luck. How could all of his loved ones be gone? They'd had to go on without him, and he'd never talk to them again. All his relationships, his inventions, his world...it was all gone, or unrecognizable.

Then, he'd succumb to despair for a while. He'd be overwhelmed by not only his loneliness, but he'd struggle to adapt to this new world. Technology had surely moved on a great deal in his absence, and it would take time for him to rebuild his knowledge base enough to function in the world. Language might have even evolved past him! It would be even more difficult with no allies, and building up trust again with all that he'd lost would be tougher.

Finally, because he'd still believe his stubbornness could overcome everything (and he doesn't always think about consequences), he'd attempt to build a time machine to take him back. It's not fair and he won't stand for it. Surely inserting himself back in the timeline won't have any disastrous side effects, right? If it was possible to go back at all, it would take a lot of time and he'd have to pick himself up and ally with people, but he would keep at it with grim determination. His friends are a core feature of his life and he won't give them up.

🦋 Fae Court

List your top three choices for your characters adoptive court. The mods will choose the one out of those three options that seems the most fitting based on your app.

• CHOICE 1
Winter

• CHOICE 2
Summer

• CHOICE 3
Autumn

Ability: Do you want your character to gain the ability of their court? (Delete the other two options.)
1) No, they will retain their canon abilities.

🦋 RP Samples

tdm samples

Name: Zoki
Journal: azora_mysta
Other contact info will be in games' contact posts, to be linked here later.

Comments and crit are accepted here! Screened, anon-enabled.

Physical description:
Billy is a white 18 (perhaps 19) year old guy, with dull blond hair, green eyes. He stands at a height of 5'7" (in other words, fairly short for an adult human male). He looks older than his age with all those stress lines on his face.

He has a light, higher-pitched voice and a distinctly American accent. It may be identifiable as late-20th century Californian if your character is familiar with various American accents.

Permissions:
[OOC]

Backtagging: A-ok! Feel free to poke me if it's been a while, I might've crossed a wire or lost an email somewhere.

Threadhopping: Go for it, if it's cool with them too.

Fourthwalling: Sure!

Offensive subjects: None

[IC]

Hugging this character: He'll probably think your character's a little weird if he doesn't know them, but he won't hurt anyone.

Kissing this character: Same as above, but with more flailing. He's single and confused.

Flirting with this character: He's better at it than he used to be, go right ahead. He's 18 if you want to know age first.

Fighting with this character: He's about as competent as an average human gets, maybe a little more when he starts getting his powers back. Go for it, but please talk to me about it. I'll talk to you about it if Billy's the instigator.

Injuring this character: Minor thwomping's okay, if it'll affect his ability to do his job (mechanic fun and fighting) please talk to me about it.

Killing this character: Definitely talk to me first.

Using telepathy/mind reading abilities on this character: Ask first please! But generally yes.

Billy has a major need to clear his head.

Keeping up with the Machine Empire takes up more of his energy than he ever dreamed possible. Most days, he doesn't know how he used to serve as the tech guy and fight in battles. But the truth is...back then, he felt important and appreciated. That made all the difference in the world. Now, as he labors on the sidelines...well, he misses that old feeling.

But maybe what he needs is outside the realm of superheroics. A retreat to clear his mind could be exactly what the doctor ordered, so he slings his pack over his shoulder and heads into the mountains. There are strange reports of a mysterious presence here, but that just adds to the intrigue.

So it's not long before he's passing a cavern...and like the curious fool he is, he pauses outside it.

» PLAYER INFORMATION
Player NAME: Zoki
Current AGE: 22
Player TIME ZONE: EST (GMT-5)
Personal JOURNAL: azora_mysta
IM & SERVICE: AIM: zokium
Player PLURK: zokiblue
Current CHARACTERS: N/A

» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Billy Cranston
Canon & MEDIUM: Power Rangers Zeo (TV)
Canon PULL-POINT: "Revelations of Gold", after Billy fails to absorb the Gold Ranger powers.
Character AGE: 18 yrs
Character ABILITIES: Billy isn't a Power Ranger anymore, but he's still in peak physical shape. With three years of combat experience under his belt, he's skilled in hand-to-hand combat, acrobatic evasive maneuvers (dem flips), and the use of the weapons he'd used as a Power Ranger: a laser gun and a double-ended trident that can be used as one long trident or two shorter pieces, one in each hand. A double-headed trident much like the Blue Mighty Morphin Ranger's old one is his chosen weapon.

His main intellectual abilities are his gifts for mechanics and invention. Billy is a skilled mechanic with 1990s technology, and he will strive to update his skills throughout the war. His past inventions include small blasters, mini communicators, weather detection devices, basic computational programs, and scanners. He won't be rigging up a teleportation system or any flying cars without a massive available power source and plenty of help, though (basically never). He loves all kinds of work, but his favorite projects are vehicles (both the enormous military tank kind and average sedan kind) and weapons, especially projectiles.

Character HISTORY: Billy lived the childhood of an unfortunate geek. He disassembled his mother's vacuum cleaner for a fun science project at age seven, read a great many books, tinkered with every gadget he could get his hands on, and loved it, but he found himself an outcast at school. He had very few friends and many bullies, but the four friends he eventually gained were wonderful. Though they all came from different cliques and walks of life, they all appreciated Billy for who he was---a kind and thoughtful person behind his mouthfuls of exceptionally excessive verbosity. They helped him fight his bullies, and in turn he helped them with homework, car repairs, and anything to do with computers and statistics.

Everything changed for the small group of friends when an invasion of Earth began. The sorceress Rita Repulsa and her evil little cronies escaped from their dumpster of a prison and set up shop in a castle on Earth's moon, sending down giant monsters to conquer the world a city at a time. Her opponent from the old days of the cosmic wars, Zordon, felt duty-bound to fight Rita's monsters. But could he do it himself? No, because the poor guy was imprisoned in a dimensional warp, conveniently represented in this dimension by a tube with a giant floating head in it. That's where Billy and friends came in. Zordon chose the five 'overbearing and emotional young human' friends as his soldiers, giving them the power to transform into the mighty Power Rangers and the command of some rather impressive giant mecha called Zords. Whenever Rita and her giant monsters attacked, the Power Rangers and their giant mecha would be there to counter them.

Billy was by far the least athletic of the new Power Rangers when their battle began. The Ranger powers gave him enough guidance that he survived the early battles without too much trouble, but the Rangers had been commanded to use that power only when absolutely necessary. The team often fought Rita's lesser monsters without resorting to their powers, leaving Billy to flail while the martial artists, gymnasts, and dancers of the group fought off their opponents with skill. This led Billy to doubt his usefulness to the group at several points, but months of martial arts training, field experience, and encouragement eventually brought Billy's fighting skill up to par with the rest of the group's abilities. He developed a fighting style heavy on evasion and acrobatics, but he could still hit hard.

His greatest love, though, was still invention. Billy's mechanical skills were unrivaled during his tenure as a Power Ranger. He built a number of devices that bailed the Rangers out of tight spots, most impressively a flying car from some scraps of Zord technology and a communication and teleportation system for the team. With the help of Zordon's robotic assistant, Alpha, Billy learned the ins and outs of Ranger technology and kept the operation running smoothly.

Billy served as a Power Ranger for three years. In that time, villains came and went, powers were lost and gained, and Rangers moved near and far, new friends coming in to fill in for the old. By the end of the three years, Billy was the only one of the original group of five still on the Ranger team. He was doing his best to mentor the new team members, and all seemed well---until he failed.

A new enemy came to town, turning back time and leaving the Rangers defenseless children. With the Power Rangers unable to morph, Zordon was forced to call for reinforcements. A team of Rangers from a distant planet called Aquitar came to assist, and young Billy took to them right away. With their help, Billy managed to construct a device that would restore the Rangers to their original ages. As the inventor, he tested the device on himself first---and it worked. But before he could restore the others, the enemy found them and destroyed the device, taking the Rangers' powers with it. Billy and Zordon sent each of the other Rangers to travel the globe, retrieving a crystal that would grant them new powers. One of the Rangers opted to stay behind, though, sending yet another new face in her place. Meanwhile, the Aquitar Rangers saved the day and time was restored, aging the rest of the team back to normal.

When the group reunited after their quests, disaster struck again: the enemy dropped an explosive into the Rangers' base of operations. Billy tried desperately to stop the bomb, but Zordon teleported the group to safety before the detonation. The Rangers could only watch in shock as their home (and presumably their mentors and friends) went up in smoke. It seemed to be the end, but as they traveled into the ruins, they found that Zordon and Alpha were still alive. The pair had relocated to a deeper level of the base, and they were glad to get the Rangers situated with their new powers.

At this point, Billy made a difficult choice. The Rangers had retrieved five crystals for five powers, but there were six teenagers. The newest girl offered to give Billy command of the crystal she had been sent back with, but he refused. He realized at this point that perhaps he would be a better assistant than a Ranger, and he stepped back to watch the others take up the fight. From here on out, Billy would be their mission support rather than in the fray.

Billy was an excellent technical assistant. He made upgrades to the Rangers' Zords, solved technical problems around the base, and had the team working more efficiently than ever. But it didn't feel like enough. At this point, he was lonely. He'd been rushed through an early high school graduation at the beginning of his senior year, leaving him with empty days while the rest of the group all attended school together. They often partied at the local hangouts while he worked around the base, leaving Billy to complain at one point that it felt as if he lived there now. The Rangers had promised Billy that he'd always be one of them, but it didn't always feel that way to him.

Early that year, Billy left Earth to assist the Aquitar Rangers on their home planet in return for their service in the past. It was an eventful mission for Billy with a rocky ride home, leaving him with an appreciation for the wonders that existed beyond Earth and an extra fondness for his home planet. He was intrigued by other worlds, but the fight on Earth was more important to him at that point.

As the fight wore on, a new Ranger arrived to assist when the group was in trouble: the mysterious Gold Ranger. The other Rangers had at first accused Billy of being the mysterious new Ranger but the accusations were unfounded---he wasn't quite skilled enough to build his own powers. The true Gold Ranger was Trey, a visitor from the planet Triforia. He assisted the Rangers for as long as he could until he fell ill. Another person was needed to carry the Gold Ranger powers until Trey recovered. Billy volunteered immediately---he already knew all about being a Power Ranger, and he dearly missed fighting alongside his friends.

Unfortunately, lingering effects from his use of the age-restoring device kept Billy's body from absorbing the power. The new Ranger would have to be someone else. He walked home defeated that day, about to enter his new life serving the Initiative.

Character PERSONALITY:

Billy originally agreed to join his friends in battle because he was excited about the opportunity to help others and make a difference, and he'll approach his duties in Exsilium in the same way. He won't hesitate to help a person in need, whether he can help with some mechanical issue, try to connect to a person who's feeling isolated like he does, or take up his weapon and fight if he must. He's almost never quite satisfied with his contributions: in combat, he still feels that he's fairly weak. In mechanics, the field he considers his strength, he's an extreme perfectionist, often becoming dejected and snappish if he fails to come up with a solution right away. He knows he's the tech guy and that people count on him for it, and mechanical achievements are the main source of his inner pride. If he fails, the one person he'll usually blame is himself.

Billy's greatest interest is in learning. He focuses much of this energy on mechanics, hoping to become an adequate mechanic for technology from many different eras. Just as interesting as the items from each world and era are the people. His intellectual curiosity often overcomes his shyness, prompting him to eagerly ask about new times and places. He needs to focus that energy more seriously for the Initiative, but he hopes to learn as he saves the future---or so he hopes.

As he interacts with others, Billy is polite if a little hesitant around most people. Coming from years of bullying followed by the emotional distance between him and his old friends, close friendships are in short supply for him. He's almost always cordial and supportive, and typically humble about his new inventions when discussing them with others, but his resentment of his sidelined status sometimes comes bubbling through in stares and sighs. Even now he's not confident enough to express his feelings directly.

The main objects of his scorn are bullies. He especially won't hold back against someone who insults other people for having intellectual interests, particularly if they later reveal that they have no clue what they're talking about. His default response in a fight is a snappish comeback, but a really spectacular failure of compassion might inspire him to begin a long-winded rant.

In short, Billy's a nice guy wrapped up in what might be called a 'former hero' complex. He's proud of his past achievements and knows he can contribute a great deal, but he still wants the recognition he had as a hero. Yet he also strives to rationalize the choice he made to give that up---he was the best prepared to assist in a non-hero position, the others were better fighters anyway, it was all right to let go and focus on studies and his better talents, and more. He's still trying to figure out his new place in the world, pretty much.

» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON: Billy will choose a double-headed trident that splits into two halves for easy portability and wielding a pointy thing in each hand, very similar in design to the Power Lance he wielded as the Blue Power Ranger.

It will evolve to provide Billy with a reasonable facsimile of his former powers in stages. Each evolution will occur in the midst of a battle when it's needed most, responding to his needs as usual. The pieces of armor that eventually appear are a little thicker than the not-spandex shown in most Power Rangers series, instead appearing more like these costumes from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie. They are a silver color, representing more traditional armor and the gray that is an ever-present part of his wardrobe now.

Stage 1: Base weapon, nothing special about it.
Stage 2: Gains the ability to deliver short electric shocks when spun.
Stage 3: Causes flexible arm bracers to appear when activated, along with a small burst of adrenaline.
Stage 4: Causes flexible leg guards to appear, along with a boost in jump height (doubled) and speed (can maintain sprint for twice as long as baseline)
Stage 5: A torso shield is added, along with a stronger shot of adrenaline for endurance.
Stage 6: The pieces of armor become full body armor, along with a helmet. Billy's abilities are now on par with what they were as a Power Ranger. In summary, this means his physical capabilities are extended to the point that he could jump up to climb into a mecha if they existed, he's shielded from minor explosions, he's energized to fight intensely for a few hours if the need arises, and minor blows are rebuffed. Something sharp going right through or an explosion that obliterates everything in a mile radius is still going to kill him, of course. The only powers he had as a Ranger that don't transfer over are teleportation (no network powered by a grid to tap into) and Zord-summoning (no giant mecha here).

Character INVENTORY: Billy wears his standard outfit: gray and black shirt, dark jeans, and protective boots suitable for working in shop, and contact lenses for his vision. In his backpack he carries a toolkit consisting of heavy-duty goggles, thick gloves, three small wrenches, wire cutters, pliers, hammer and nails, a screwdriver with three interchangeable heads, and a Swiss army knife. He also carries a graphing calculator and an 8 pack of AA batteries, but this won't last too long.

» PREVIOUS GAME INFORMATION ( IF APPLICABLE ) N/A
Previous GAME(s): N/A
Previous GAME SETTING(s): N/A
Previous GAME CR: N/A
Your character's DEVELOPMENT: N/A

» SAMPLES
First PERSON:

Hey,

I'm writing to ask about our current state of affairs in regards to mechanics. I know I'll likely be receiving some direction from our leaders, but I'll probably have some time to fill side orders. I'm best at fixing weapons and vehicles, but I'll look at whatever you have that needs repairs anyway.

I won't charge you anything extreme, I know we don't usually have marques to spare. I'll make the fee as small as possible, I promise. But if I slowly pool enough resources I might be able to move to bigger projects that will help all of us. Just let me know what you'd like to see built, I need some ideas to sketch out.

Third PERSON:
Billy couldn't help but stare at the weapon in his hand. It seemed to thrum with a low electric current, just like his old Power Lance had done. If he twirled one of the blades and jammed it into something, would it produce a shock? It was an interesting mechanism and a tricky one to replicate, making him wonder just how extensive the resistance's armory was.

Or was that thrumming just his racing pulse? Billy almost swore the sensation was something like the adrenaline rush that morphing had been. It wasn't a full rush, of course, but it surprised Billy. Hadn't he made his choice? As he'd told the Rangers, he did his best work as a technical assistant, and the laboratory was where he belonged. He'd tried to explain that he would be working in that capacity for the Initiative as well. Maybe his weapon should have been a super wrench or his intellect---he could just imagine what knowledge and breakthroughs would be available to him as a super genius.

So why had his hand shot toward this trident, so much like the weapon from his past? He wasn't a warrior anymore. Why take that role when there were so many others here who still had those amazing powers? Specialization wasn't a bad thing, he told himself. It was efficient, and he hadn't felt the same thrill from exhibition matches that his old friends had so often described to him. Fighting for the sake of fighting didn't bring him joy.

But as Billy swung that weapon in the air, in advance of his first training session, he realized the reason why. With this power, he could protect. With this training, he had become more than he was before all of this began. And if he could serve as both a mechanic and a fighter, maybe that meant he was twice as well prepared to help protect people. Not that skills could be quantified so simply without a formula, but he knew what he meant.

» ADDITIONAL NOTES
A month or two after his pull point, Billy will begin rapidly aging and die within 2 days due to a side effect from radiation he absorbed from his age-accelerating invention. He needs water from the Eternal Falls to age normally after this point.